Risen World

Chapter 304: Taking the first Shot

It only took around ten minutes for Isabella and Henry to have all of the members of the support group set up in the formation they wanted to defend themselves with. Everyone knew their role in the upcoming battles and the higher level members with more experience in the support group would know when it was time for them to start giving ground to the hoard of haze creatures and zombies.

The news crew had also set up and were ready to view everything that would be going on for both sides of the battle. Two of the men that had come along with Sarah would stay back with the support group and film everything that was going on around them. Of course the haze would get in the way a bit, but they had drones that they used to fly around battlefields and record what was going on. Of course they could be damaged with all the spells and other attacks begin thrown around the area, but they had plenty of replacements and all of the recordings were being saved on the central unit with the news crew members.

Sarah and her other camera man would be coming along with Joshua and the main group to film their side of the fight. Of course they were going to have to stay by the healers the entire time since that would be the safest place for them in the formation, but they seemed confidant in their abilities to protect themselves if things got out of hand. When Joshua observed their levels he was surprised to find out that Sarah was level sixty-two and her camera man was only a level behind her. She told them something along the lines of gaining a lot of experience from being around other parties in tough situations. Of course this meant that their levels weren't exactly surprising with all of the dungeon runs the y go on while filming other people. Even in this expedition they would be getting quite a lot of experience just from being in their party.

With everything set up Joshua and the rest of the main group decided to move and start making their way over to the resting area of the two giant monkeys that they had scouted out before. Natalie would then give the signal to the support group to start causing a commotion when they were in position and ready to take on the two sub-boss level beast. It would get a lot of the smaller haze creatures to leave the area of the sub-boss level apes. That's all that Joshua's group would need to have a fair chance at taking them out.

As they made their way out of the area that they had already cleared, they made sure to immediately climb the nearest building to get off of street level. Being on ground level would just draw to much attention to them which they didn't want while they moved quickly through the town. The buildings were close enough to each other that everyone in the group was easily able to leap from roof to roof. Even in the case of the healers the distance between buildings wasn't too big. Whenever they came across a building that was to high up to make the leap for some of the members the grappler hooks came in handy and allowed them to pull themselves up easily.

They continued to make their way across the town in that fashion for a while. It was hard for any of the haze creatures to notice them since they tended to stay inside the buildings or on the ground. None of the haze creatures seemed to like being up on top of the roofs of the buildings since the areas were too small for their liking. So they used this fact to their advantage and avoided getting in any trouble on their way to the park area where the two monkeys were located.

Since Joshua had already scouted the area out earlier they were able to easily make their way towards the park without having to stop very often. The only issue they came across was the occasional gap between buildings that was too far for them to jump across. Under those occasions they'd have to make their way down to street level and move cautiously until they found another stretch of buildings they could get on top of and roof hop across. Eventually they made it to the scene of their target and the two giant monkeys were still sleeping in the park.

'Well they don't seem to be worried about a thing in the world.' Laura said as she gazed over the pair of sub bosses. Their scorpion tails would occasionally make an appearance as they would sway along the ground whenever the monkeys would move around in their sleep.

'That's good for us. Gives us an opportunity for a big first strike.' Henry said as he started looking around the immediate surroundings of the two monkeys. Right away they all noticed that there weren't to many buildings around the park close enough for them to take advantage of. Their close range fighters were going to have to get on ground level to face the creatures from the start of the battle. The range fighters could stay up on the buildings however and use them as cover to surround the monkeys and oppress them from above.

'Well, however you guys decide to go about things we'll stay out of your way.' Sarah said through the mental link that Natalie had connected her and her camera man to. 'We'll record as much as we can of the fighting without bringing any attention to ourselves.'

Joshua noticed a pair of drones that seemed to have been set up by the camera man. They were fairly small being around the size of a toy helicopter as they soared into the air and started to move closer to get a clear view of the two monkeys in all their glory. The drones were silent so they didn't attract any attention to themselves while at the same time the haze in the area had thinned out a bit with the monkeys absorbing it in their sleep.

'So how do you guys want to get things started?' Henry asked as he looked at the rest of the group. 'We can set up the playing field before we tell the other group to start creating a distraction.'

Everyone nodded in agreement at Henry's idea before Isabella seemed to have a few ideas of how best to get things started. 'We should focus on doing as much long lasting damage as possible to them both before the haze can heal the two of them. Fire seems to be our strongest offensive ability at the moment, so I say we go for something flashy.' Isabella explained.

'I've never had anything against flashy.' Adrian said with a grin.

'Madalyn do you have any poisons that won't wake the two monkeys up right away if they're surrounded by it?' Joshua asked with a plan coming to mind.

'Sure I've got plenty different types. Guess you're wanting one that's flammable though with Bella's idea and all.' Madalyn said with a smile as she took out some canisters from her inventory that she was prepared to use at any moment.

'Good then all we need is for Amber to create some walls around the park to keep the flames trapped in. I don't think it'll be enough to kill these two creatures considering their level and the fact that as haze creatures they most likely have a high regeneration, but it'll be a good start.' Joshua explained getting knowing nods from the others. 'Alright let's get things set up before Natalie gives the support group the signal to get things started on their end.'

After the little discussion they all got to work on setting things up for the big start to taking down the territory. Amber was the first one to make a move as she started to use her earth elemental magic to create giant three story tall walls around the park. They were more than big enough considering the height of the monkeys and they were reinforced with her magic so they wouldn't be broken through too quickly. Henry helped her out by casting a few enchantment support spells on all of the walls that she was putting up. These spells added an extra barrier that surrounded the earthen walls and strengthened them.

When the walls were finished being set up Madalyn was the next one to get to work as she started dispensing her canisters around the park quietly while avoiding waking up the two sub-bosses. The canisters seemed to be on a timer for release before they started spewing out green poison that formed a giant cloud around the park. Even with the poison incasing the two monkeys they didn't wake since it wasn't heavy in the air or fast acting. It would have an effect on them later on while they were fighting, but for now it was nothing more than a slight tickle across their noses.

With everything set for the big fire workers all that was left was for them to all get into position before the fighting. Joshua was on the street level out front. He wanted to be the first thing the two monkeys would notice over the rest of the group. Jayce was the only other Tank on the ground level with him since the other tanks would stay on building level with the ranged fighters to protect them if the monkeys decided to try to get around the close range fighters.

Up on the roof all of the ranged fighters had picked out a rather large four story building nearby that had lots of space for them to move around on. Before they took over the building for their set up they of course cleared it out of any zombies or haze creatures. Joshua's close range group did the same on ground level making sure that most of the haze creatures in the immediate area were taken care of. They knew that the noise that they would make while fighting the sub-bosses would grab some attention from the nearby haze creatures, but it wouldn't be as bad after they cleared out all the ones around the area for the moment.

'Alright looks like we're all set.' Joshua said while turning to signal Natalie. 'Go ahead and let the support group know to get things started. We're ready on our end.'

Natalie nodded in response before opening her mental link with the member of the support group that she was still connected to. They seemed to have gotten the message loud in clear as it only took a few moment for a loud crashing sound to fill the air. It was the crumbling sound of an entire building collapsing in on itself and it was more than enough noise to attract the attention of all of the haze creatures in the town. The only issue was the fact that it was also loud enough to grab the attention of the two monkeys that were starting to wake up.

'Go on the attack now!' Joshua shouted through the mental link. He knew that they would have to get going before the monkeys could climb their way over the earthen walls and out of the gas. Both Laura and Julia took heed of his words as Laura was the first one to take action. She didn't hold back as she created an enormous bird made of flames that she sent diving from the roof tops towards the monkeys. The moment the flaming bird touched the gas it created an explosion of fire large enough to shake the entire area. The fire bird continued to soar through the explosion and crash into the pair of monkeys. It was the perfect situation to keep them locked in place.

The earthen walls that Amber had set up beforehand were holding up from the powerful explosion, but things weren't finished yet as Julia threw in her own inferno spell that only caused the fire to grow hotter and larger as it towered towards the sky. The painful screams of the monkeys were sure to grab attention under normal circumstances, but the support group wasn't done on their end. Another couple of loud crashing sounds came from the direction of the support group as more buildings fell over alongside loud explosions from different spells being fired off. The noise coming from that direction was much louder and more constant. It would attract more attention and hopefully work out as planned.

Now all Joshua could do was wait to see how much damage their initial attack had caused.josei